Laptop, laptop, laptop, ack! I mean Mac! Guys!! How do I use this Mac??

[Howard Alan Treesong]

I got my new Macbook! It is soooo sexy.

But I don't know anything about OSX or "standard" Mac software installs.

What should I install on it to turn it into a powerful beast of a machine?

So far, I've added:

- Firefox with deli.co.us plugin
- Adium with Growl
- World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

What should I use for document editing/creation? OpenOffice? Google Docs? iWork? It needs to be Word/Excel compatible.

Any must-install free games or other programs I should look into?

Thanks for making my Mac as sexy on the inside as it is on the outside.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Like tauntaun's buttocks.

[close]

[Vizzys]

install windows

[drew]

install quicksilver

[G The Resurrected]

Boot Camp is your friend

[Eric P]

hey, i'm on a mac too and i don't use it for much other than the terminal (zomg so nice to have this native), thunderbird, and firefox.

my solution was to go out and buy office.  or rather have my job buy me office.  i hear that open office and iwork don't translate as well as you'd like.  if you're just doing casual stuff it may be good.  personally, i dunno.

i really liked setting up spaces and working with the user preferences to do a lot of stuff on this machine.  it feels far more comfortable now than straight out of the box.  i really like the mouse pad gestures

[Eric P]

install quicksilver

i did and i don't think i'm using it to the fullest extent.  i even took it off my dock

[Van Cruncheon]

install vista

[drew]

i did and i don't think i'm using it to the fullest extent.  i even took it off my dock

here's how i use it:

click icon => window pops up => hit the first letter of the program i want to open then hit enter => program opens! =>  ? => profit!

that way you don't need to have a huge dock or dig through your apps folder

[Howard Alan Treesong]

0) Does Boot Camp come with all copies of Leopard? So I can just say "hey, Boot Camp this machine" and feed it Vista?
1) what's Quicksilver?
2) My brother, a Mac user, also says I need to just get Office as well. Sniff.
3) What's a "space"?

[Don Flamenco]

iWork is great. Easiest productivity suite I've ever used and the results are always great looking.  You can convert to pdf, word, rtf, and other formats.  Not sure how much it costs normally (I got it for $50 student discount), but it's worth every penny...goes right along with your "sexy on the inside" request. I'm sure plenty of people will recommend open office and all that, but screw it.  I use that on my windows PC and it's incredibly clunky and slow compared to iWork.

Some good free software:
Media players - get VLC mac
Torrents - Transmission is the best until uTorrent releases their client
.rar - UnrarX

[Tauntaun]

Thanks for making my Mac as sexy on the inside as it is on the outside.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Like tauntaun's buttocks.

[close]

 

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[TakingBackSunday]

Handbrake-DVD to mpeg4 converter
Max-audio file converter and extractor
Plex-port of XBMC, pretty cool
The Unarchiver-archive unpacker program
VLC-widely supported media player
Multiclutch-assign trackpad movements to functions in ALL programs.  Makes three-finger swipe enabled in Firefox basically
Flip4mac wmv-maes wmv files playable

edit:

0) Does Boot Camp come with all copies of Leopard? So I can just say "hey, Boot Camp this machine" and feed it Vista?
1) what's Quicksilver?
2) My brother, a Mac user, also says I need to just get Office as well. Sniff.
3) What's a "space"?

-Yeah, Boot Camp works right out of the box for everything.  All you need is a copy of Windows.  Make sure you kept the Leopard discs the computer came with, it has the drivers needed when you install windows
-Quicksilver is like a beefed up Spotlight, but I've never had the desire to use it
-Yeah, just get Office, that's what I did
-You have 4 separate desktops, basically, with spaces.  You can arrange what you have open that way--I have firefox on one, itunes on another, word on the third, and maybe porn on the fourth.  Go into System preferences and go to expose and spaces, and you can fiddle around with corners and such

[Eric P]

0) Does Boot Camp come with all copies of Leopard? So I can just say "hey, Boot Camp this machine" and feed it Vista?
1) what's Quicksilver?
2) My brother, a Mac user, also says I need to just get Office as well. Sniff.
3) What's a "space"?

spaces comes with your macbook (i think you got the exact same one i did).  what it does is it gives up you up to four simultanious desktops.  i use it for a space for terminal, a space for work webpages and a space for personal webpages and then i leave one blank. 

click icon => window pops up => hit the first letter of the program i want to open then hit enter => program opens! =>  ? => profit!

oh nice

since this is predominately for work, i have a very manageable dock for right now but that may change in the future

[Eric P]

Handbrake-DVD to mpeg4 converter
Max-audio file converter and extractor
Plex-port of XBMC, pretty cool
The Unarchiver-archive unpacker program
VLC-widely supported media player
Multiclutch-assign trackpad movements to functions in ALL programs.  Makes three-finger swipe enabled in Firefox basically
Flip4mac wmv-maes wmv files playable

is there a good dvd ripper?

[TakingBackSunday]

To be honest I've never had to rip any dvds, so I'm not sure.  I don't ever use handbrake, lol

[Eric P]

since the conversion from vob to other formats is still lengthy and resource intensive on my desktop i was going to hopefully farm it out to this laptop so i can game while the conversion chugs along.

i seriously need to buy ableton for this thing though

[hyp]

yup, boot camp comes w/ leopard.

[Eric P]

yup, boot camp comes w/ leopard.

oh neat

i didn't know that.

anyone have a spare copy of vista?

[drew]

in that case head out to Best Buy and buy Counterstrike Source (comes w/ Half Life: Deathmatch)

[Van Cruncheon]

anyone have a spare copy of vista?

[Rman]

-Handbreak is awesome for ripping DVDs. 

-Honestly, I would just get a Mac version of Office for the best compatibility.  Get the Student Teacher Edition.  It's cheaper.  Or you can get iWork.

-Photoshop

-QuickSilver is an awesome, context based app launcher.

-VM Ware Fusion for Windows virtualization if you do not want to use Bootcamp since it requires a reboot to switch OSes.  Parallels desktop is also a fine choice

-Delicious Library 2- Scan all your games, books, movies, using your Macs built in camera to read UPC codes.  It creates virtual shelves of all your media.  It imports images from the Amazon database.

-iStumbler- Get detailed wireless network info.  Very useful for troubleshooting wi fi issues.

-Keynote- Awesome Macafied version of PowerPoint.  More design friendy.

[Eric P]

handbrake is really nice.  lots of easy to use options (it seems).  i'm ripping down something really quick straight from the dvd for timing purposes

unfortunately the macbook dvd itself seems to reject non-region 1 discs, or at least it does the standard "change 4 times then lock" of dvd drives.

[Smooth Groove]

Patel, get the new 24" LED monitor from Apple.  It's beautiful. 

I just wish its screen was matte instead of glossy but I'd still get one if it were PC compatible. 

[Eric P]

quicksilver is kind of neat with the ability to contextually set up comands based on the application

unfortunately i don't have much call for it right now other than to launch apps.

handbrake was good for a one stop ripping shop. 

any other apps i should look at?

[Rman]

yep, VLC is basically a region free player.

[Cormacaroni]

orly, I didn't know. Can handbrake rip any region DVDs though? Or does VLC handle any point of that workflow? I have tons of Region 1 stuff I need to archive before getting rid of/packing up.

it sadly cannot, AFAIK. i tried but i'm no expert.

but you can still switch your DVD drive to region 1, do all your ripping, then switch it back if you need to.

[TVC15]

but you can still switch your DVD drive to region 1, do all your ripping, then switch it back if you need to.

Ooo, how!  This would be like the holy grail for me.

[T-Short]

Install Applejack, good thing to have on there if you need to clear caches or check the drive and you don't have a boot DVD around.
Applejack <3

[Eric P]

yep, VLC is basically a region free player.

i was trying to put a region 3 dvd in and the mac made me confirm my region.  when i didn't change it, the mac immediately ejected the disc.

maybe this is a new feature?